PlainSpeech Messages | Find YOUR way to GRACE.
I recently read a message I’d given in 1984 and felt a mixture of embarrassment and surprise. Embarrassed because it seems inadequate now, and surprised by how much my worldview has changed. Twenty-five years from now, I might read these messages and have a similar reaction. I offer no guarantee that my work or words will endure the eroding effects of time. I can only assure you these thoughts have been helpful to me, and perhaps a few others, today. With that qualification, I offer them to you.
~ Philip
NEW!
Money (1) The Business of Our Lives
An old friend came to visit last week. We were sitting outside in our screenhouse, and the subject of money came up. My friend said, “I love money,” and I immediately thought of the comedian Steve Martin, who said, “I love money. I love everything about it. I bought...
Good Goodbyes
I was chatting with a man recently about the things we should know but aren’t taught, the things we must learn on our own. Most of us weren’t taught about finances, we just mimic the spending habits of our parents, be they good or bad. My mother was frugal, and my...
My Father’s Ice Cream Ministry
Welcome to meeting, Friends. On this day we remember and give thanks for the presence of ice cream in our lives. Catholics believe in transubstantiation, that when the priest offers the Eucharistic prayer, the bread and wine change in substance to become the actual...
Graduation Day 2025
Good morning, friends. Today we are celebrating our graduates and women, which presents me with an abundance of preaching possibilities. A few weeks ago, when I was thinking about this morning, I thought to myself, “If only there were a Bible story about graduation...
A Good Word About Gratitude
It is so nice to be back at Fairfield. Last weekend we were in San Antonio watching our son graduate from college. Joan had flown down four days earlier to babysit our grandson Miles so Sam and Kelsea could pack for their move to Fort Campbell. I stayed back here to...
Easter 2025 – What We See
I was visiting with a friend this past week and we got to talking about the worst jobs we’d ever had. Mine was my first job out of high school, when for five years I operated a rattling, banging, prone-to-malfunctioning machine that scanned utility bills. Every day...
2025 Palm Sunday
This is my 25th Palm Sunday here at Fairfield. This past week, I read through all 25 Palm Sunday sermons I’d given, and I noticed I was giving essentially the same sermon every Palm Sunday--the modesty and humility of Jesus riding a donkey stands in contrast to the...
A Culture of Caring
Welcome, friends. It is, as always, a delight to be with you in this pleasant place. It was Winston Churchill who famously said, “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.” I was having lunch with a friend this past week who asked me what I would have done if...
Things That Give Me Hope (4)
It is good to be home. I was in North Carolina last weekend, officiating at the wedding of my niece, Lauren, the daughter of my oldest brother Glenn, who is as white as white can be. Here’s how white my brother is. When he retired two years ago, he bought a pick-up...
Things That Give Me Hope (3) —Thank God for the Status Quo
A year after I was born, my father was hired by Johnson Wax as a salesman, visiting grocery stores across Indiana, peddling his wares, mostly Raid bug spray and Pledge furniture polish. Then in 1970, the shaving cream world was rocked when Johnson Wax invented Edge...